CHARLTON, a parish in Malmsbury district, Wilts; 2¼ miles NE of Malmsbury, and 4 WSW of Minety r. station. It as a post office under Chippenham. Acres, 4,780. Real property, £4,926. Pop., 621. Houses, 129. The property is not much divided. The manor belonged to Malmsbury Abbey; passed to the Knevits; and belongs now to the Earl of Suffolk. The mansion on it, Charlton House, is a stately edifice, of Jacobean architecture, with west front by Inigo Jones; contains a large collection of valuable paintings; and was frequently visited by the poet Dryden. The living is a vicarage, annexed to the vicarage of Westport, in the diocese of Gloucester and Bristol. The church is early English; and contains the burial-vault of the Earls of Suffolk. Charities, £10.

(John Marius Wilson, Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870-72))